AU seeks to defuse Chad, Sudan tensions

April 19, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — The African Union will send a delegation to Chad this week in a bid to defuse escalating tensions between Chad and Sudan, which accuses Khartoum of backing a coup attempt and has broken off diplomatic relations, a senior AU official said Wednesday.

“It is a fact-finding mission to look at the political situation in Chad and see what evidence the Chadian government can produce of a Sudanese invasion,” said Patrick Mazimhaka, vice president of the pan-African body’s executive commission.

The high-level team will leave AU headquarters in Addis Ababa on Friday for a four-day mission in a bid to determine the facts on the ground, he said.

The six-member delegation will meet Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno as well as representatives from the country’s “different political forces” and report back next week to the AU’s Peace and Security Council.

Chad broke off diplomatic relations with Sudan last Friday, a day after an attack on N’Djamena by rebel forces seeking to topple Deby, who says they are actively supported by Beshir’s regime.

Chad has also withdrawn its delegation from African Union-brokered peace talks for Sudan’s troubled western Darfur region because of “Sudanese aggression.”

Sudan has denied allegations of engineering the coup attempt.

The African Union has condemned Chadian rebel attacks but has yet to comment on Deby’s accusations of Sudanese backing for the United Front for Change (FUC), drawing angry responses from N’Djamena.

Deby, who maintains his forces have successfully fended off last week’s attacks on the capital, has accused the African Union of ignoring signs of Sudanese involvement in the uprising.

“The African Union should condemn Sudan’s agression in the strongest way,” he said. “If my colleagues cannot say the truth to (President Omar) al-Beshir, this continent is off to another bad start.”

(ST)